Greater Community
by Sam Hodum
October 7, 2026 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: John 4, Exodus 18:13-23, Exodus 18:21

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--greater-community
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Well, this week or this month, we are talking about greater community. Um, I'm going to pick up from where I left off Sunday, uh, just a little bit. And I'm going to start with whales. So, I was doing a little bit of study on whales a little bit more. And there's two words, two two Jewish words for well, and it's like all is well. And that was like shalom or something. It was like shalom. I don't speak Jewish so or Hebrew. Uh, and then the other one about the well where you get water from, it's beer. It's be e r. It's got a apostrophe in it, but it's beer. And I was like, h, that's funny. And that's all that's all I have for that story.

uh that that is interesting that that is now what we call uh alcohol at least in the US is beer and I guess I guess there's probably some root to that uh but beer sheibba was the well at Sheba or beer sheibba um that that kind of starts but whales were essential to communal living right it um it's the meeting place it was where all the gossip happened. Uh the ladies were responsible for and still are in parts of the world are responsible for going down to the well every day uh and getting water. And I often wonder why they don't have indoor plumbing. Then I realized she has to go get the water. So he's taking a nap. So one way or the other. All right. This is primarily ladies, y'all. I'm I'm picking at y'all. Come on. work with me here.

It's just a joke. All the gossip down at the well. Uh it was it was the meeting place. It was the center of of that particular community. Uh it as as that happened, they would talk, socialize. That was where social interactions would happen. The stratosphere of who's in the inroup and the out group. It depended on when you could go get water. Uh if John 4, we find that lady, she's coming at a later part of the day when everyone else isn't getting water because she's apparently been with everyone's husband. So they're like, "You're not getting water with us." And it's like, "Oh, okay." They ostracized her a little bit. I was like, "Maybe she earned it. Maybe not.

I don't know." But that speaks to the communal aspect of what the whale does and where it's at. It's a place of of uh gathering, a place of necessity. But you can take that you can take that necessity and and you can look and say, you know, this is where um the servant found Rebecca was at the well. You can look at it and and see it becomes a very central part of the theme of the gospel. Out of your belly shall flow living waters. And then you sing the song. Anybody want to sing it? I'm just kidding. Out of your belly. Uh it's necess it did necessitate some pieces of community gathering and I say that there is you start looking at what is community then right that's I always like to know what something is.

Um sometimes I look at it is what is it not? So what is not community and that's isolation. Uh being alone. Sometimes you may not have realized how much you you rely upon community until you feel the most alone you've ever felt. You're like, "Oh, I need people. I need someone else in my life. I need a voice in my life." Uh we look at um and Eli, if as people come in, would you make sure they get a paper? uh we look at how then we we look at community as a whole. It's defined it's a unified body of individuals such as a people with common interests living in a particular area. Um that is not that is not altogether common in the US especially in a city.

Um you all have moved here from elsewhere most likely some point and so community uh people are well people are never more alone than in where there's a lot of people at because they don't know what they have in common with they don't know there's not there's not a point of commonality it's a point of we're here because there's work or there we're here because it just happened to be or we're here and what I've noticed is um and I'm going to speak this is I think it's both true here and in in other metro areas is people are more alone than they've ever been in their lives. Uh you can be surrounded by people and still be all alone and then you try and figure it out. Okay, what's my interest group?

what is uh what is someone that I things that I like to do that I signify that I identify with and so you try and build those things out and and that's okay that's a very natural thing it just takes time um Facebook mom groups are wild but they're answering a need to a community a communal like a communal need of how do I get information about something from a real person and make sure it's not a bot or it's not just a review. I need to know someone's invested and like if I use this with my most precious asset or my most precious being um that it's not going to hurt it. And and and when you look at it like that, it's like, oh, okay, that's that's part of community, right? It's people that have something else to lose. just like you do, right?

Because it's really hard to um it's really hard to trust someone with your kids if they don't have kids because they and you're like they don't have the same point of reference. It's really hard to trust someone with yourself if you don't have some sort of common interest. If you don't have some sort of commonality of, okay, what's to keep this person from absolutely just betraying me? Because that's a real question that we ask, right? At some level. I mean, I work with a bunch of people in a good place. I'm thankful for it, but I definitely don't trust everyone I work with, right? I mean, we all we probably all learned some lessons here or there with that. Uh that then we start to wonder, you know, all right, how do I have community?

I did hand this out. Uh this this hierarchy of needs that is it Maz Maslo. Okay. I didn't write his name down here and I really messed up with that. Um that that to me it can be I'm not entirely sure I agree with all of it. Okay. But it makes a lot of sense if everybody has one. It starts with the basic needs of psychological needs of food or the physiological not psychological physiological needs of food, water, warmth and rest. Everyone needs shelter, food, water, and then you got to sleep sometime or another. Uh the safety needs then you need to feel secure in where you're at. Um and then there's there the psychological needs kick in.

uh belongingness and love needs in intimate relationships and friends, esteem needs prestige, feeling of accomplishments. Um this is where like the sticker when we give stickers to kids, right? This is where stickers come in. Um and then there's self-fulfillment needs or self-actualization. This is this is help allowing people to actually become who they are and who they should be and who they can be to the best of their abilities. Here's the questions with that like we all kind of get a basic idea and understanding of what that is. See if I can get it pulled up here because I do have something I want to do with it. Yeah. Will you get that pulled up? I'm sorry.

Um, with that self with that self-actualization, that's like the peak point, but there's a whole lot of other things that you have to get to to get there. Uh, yeah. Oh. Oh, hold on. Safety needs, physiological needs. Everyone needs food and water. I started thinking about this in extremes. Um, concentration camps are like the extreme of human of human abilities toward to one another. Do you where in the in that as a thought experiment where in the concentration camp you're not really having physiological needs met or safety needs met but then there's people that still have a belongingness met that'll work.

And so, and so when you're when you're doing when you're looking at it in that in that format, you're like, "Okay, well, there's love and belonging without the actual physical things. So, what actually matters more to us?" Lauren and I were talking about and she was like, "Well, what if it's relative? You know, what if it's just a chunk of this, a chunk of this?" Because you you do have to have some sort of physiological needs met and some sort of safety met. And I I don't know. I'm I'm not I'm not saying but I do want us to understand that that love and belonging or community can actually overcome. It can actually be more important or sustain you when safety and physiological needs no longer exist. That's pretty wild to think about.

That's really and and you have to go to the extreme to see that. But it's true to a certain extent there are people that came through the concentration camps that did not have any of that but they bonded and and then built from from here and were able to build a different like it it changed them. Missing those things changed them. And so then I started thinking about, okay, can you ever be self-actualized without realizing without having some portion of that missing at some point? Oh, you're doing a snip and all this. You're fine. Just leave it like that. We can all get pureade sauce caramel for $18.92. In case you're wondering, that's a steal.

Um, it made me think, okay, well, can you can you truly appreciate physiological needs if you haven't at least had the had the threat or at least the thought and this is all relative to the person of am I going to be homeless? Am I going to what am I going to eat tomorrow? Can you truly appreciate that? You know, and and and that be relative to your life story. Um, and then safety and security. Uh, well, you know, you've been safe all your life, but like some of y'all are scared to walk through a parking lot, parking garage at night because that's I mean, me and Presley are a little scared and y'all probably be y'all probably be scared to see me us there. You'll be like, oh, this guy again. Yeah.

It's like, oh, that's what we're scared to see. And it's like, well, we were just scared. Yeah. We're just scared of anyone. I mean, I'm not walking through a parking garage at night without without some sort of like head on a swivel type thing. That's a real thing. So, there's you start to appreciate those things a little differently. Uh belongingness and love. Here's the thing. our community, we we can't always someone that's always had that. It's really hard for them to appreciate how important that is when it's not there until it's not there, I should say.

And so we look at it and I I want to ask you though and and and more of to yourself, have you ever experienced not having community, of loneliness, of feeling alone, of feeling like you're the only person that cares about you? If you didn't if you didn't show up to work tomorrow, what would it matter if you didn't and and chances are we've all felt that at some level? And then it's like, oh no, no, don't want to leave us there because it's a terrible place to just sit and mole over. Some of y'all done lost me already. Hate this class. He's the worst teacher ever. But then we start attaching. So we've got a whole generation of people that and a whole whole subgroups of people that that is what they build their life around.

Identity politics or identity uh identity like the idea of this is what I am and this is how I identify left or right good or bad. I'm not I'm not throwing stones at that. But that that tells us how important community is. And I think we know that. But sometimes we're so busy trying to fill the need for ourselves, we forget that others still have that need filled. Need to have that f need filled. I think we forget that that oh this is important to others. This is really important to others. This is really important. And as a church, we have somehow another found we've found as a body, we've come together and we're we're working to build a community of one another. We didn't grow up together. That's okay.

We're working to learn one another and we're working to build and it's coming from a place of necessity in each of our lives of we do need one another. With that, we then have to understand that in in that serving that need to as we're getting that need served, we can also help others that have that we don't have to be completely fulfilled before we start helping someone else. I think that's important for us to understand as a point. But also I want to I want to pull our attention to this word called trust because community and trust cannot they cannot exist without one another. You cannot trust be in community with someone and not in true community in in my opinion and not have trust.

And we all look at that uh that starts then getting a little deeper and you're like wait a minute where's he going tonight? Right? because everyone's been hurt a little bit and some a little bit a lot. You're like, "Oh, I'm not not gonna spend a whole lot of time on on because then we get we get like this, right? Trust." But I want to turn that because what I found is we are really easil easily talk about trust and and if we can trust someone or others but we we we do not often turn that as a mirror and are we trustworthy? Are we worthy of others trust? That is like a whole different story. Anybody got your phone? Anybody got your phone? Pull out your camera if you don't mind. I don't have mirrors. Turn on your camera.

Make a And then there's a selfie right there. That's your mirror. Are you trustworthy? Eli thought it was dumb. He didn't even pull out his phone. He's He knew. Yeah. Can I Can I ask you then, is my dependability because here's the thing. trustworthy. It matters. Is my dependability. We all say we're trustworthy. We all think we we all want to think we're trustworthy. But is my dependability relative to my circumstances? I'm dependable as long as it suits me. It's like or as long as there was a there was a day that this right here meant something. There was a day that the handshake deal you could multi-million dollar deals could be done in a handshake deal. Could I do a multi-million dollar deal with a handshake deal?

and hold up my end of it and be trustworthy. Not not the other person. Nothing to do with the other person, but with me. Could I do that? I'd be scared. But could I do it? Could I hold up my end? That's hard to think about. Could someone else trust me enough to do a handshake deal with me? Because that's that's really at the root of what of what community is is a is is trustworthiness. It's not can I trust someone else. Am I trustworthy? And that like is trustworthiness dependent is my trustworthiness dependent upon my feelings. That handshake that was if it was good or bad. If I made that deal, it didn't matter if I lost my shirt out of it. That was my deal because my word was my bond. That's like words matter. They carry weight.

Sometimes we don't like to think about how much weight they carry, but they do. Uh is my trustworthiness dependent upon my word or my relationship to the person? because well it'd be all right. They'd understand then it's relative. They'd understand that I said this but I didn't I can't do that anymore. They'd understand. It's like oh is that trustworthiness? That's hard. That makes us want to measure our words a little more be a little more careful about that.

It then becomes relativ it it starts then in in a in a in a realm of relativity to where then that whole idea we all we all say truth is we would all say truth is probably fairly concrete but then there's the whole idea about truth is relative to your perspective and it's not but but there's the idea there's the philosophy that Ruth is rel relative and it's born out of the idea it's good for me as long as it's good for me and then when it's not good for me I'm going to I'm going to disagree. So there's a whole philosophy to that and we we as humans is this is Judges says it like this. Every man did right what was right in his own eyes. Well, we can justify anything in our own way, guys.

We can talk ourselves into turning the chair upside down and just all agree that's just the way that's just you're actually supposed to sit on them like that. It's a little more comfortable for your back. It's lumbar support. You can just, you know, you can just You got to be careful though. It's a little danger. You can just I really should have got somebody else for this, but you know, Herb, would you come help me? You could you could convince yourself in a bad enough situation. You could convince yourself that's the way chairs were supposed to be set in. I've seen people convince themselves much worse, much more detrimental than something as silly as that. And it's all uh Exodus chapter 18 verse 13.

I'm going to read the ESV in this because it uses the word the King James version uses faithfulness. But I ESV the and these are these are depending on the age and time. They're they're the same. They have the same meaning to them. But the next day, Exodus 18:13, the the ne the next day Moses sat to judge the people. And the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses's father-in-law saw all he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this that you're doing?" His father-in-law was Jethro, by the way. If you watch Beverly Hillbillies, that's funny. If not, then you're just like, "Who's Jethro?

Why did you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?" And the Moses and Moses said to his father, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God," when they have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make them them known the statutes of God and his laws. And Mo Moses's father-in-law said to him, "What are you? What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out. This thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone." That's sound advice. Now obey my voice and I will give you advice and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God.

And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them known the way in which they must walk and that and what they must do. Moreover, verse 21, moreover, look for able men from all the people who fear God, who are trustworthy, and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people of chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of 50s, and of tens. Let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves, so it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you. you will be able to endure and all this people will also go to their place in peace. Peace. And all this people will go to their place in peace.

Peace was contingent upon two things. Moses delegating and then the delegate the delegators being trustworthy. Right. Verse 21. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe. I turned that to look at myself. Am I trustworthy enough that God can trust me with his people? Am I trustworthy enough that God can trust me with his word? And I challenge each of us to look at it because the foundation of community is trust. It just is. It it you cannot have it. It's worthy of confidence, dependable, a trustworthy guide, trustworthy information, all those pieces to it. And then we take it and I want to take it back to a well because each of us are building a community.

Each of us are building something around us. We are we each have our own sphere of influence. Whether it be our family or our friends or co-workers, we're all building a community around us. It's in a constant state of change. It's in a constant state of flux, but we're building it. We have to be intentional with it. But when we're doing that, can are we trustworthy enough that the well we're digging that good things are flowing out of it. Because here's the thing about the well. The well is the lifeblood of the community. If someone poisoned the well, it killed the community. If someone covered it over, it killed the community. if if the well dried up, it killed the community.

We don't think about it now because we just distribute water everywhere. But that that's not the case for the mo for most of human history. It was everything is centered around what is coming out of the well, every bit of it. And so in our lives, we have to look at this. What am I? Am I trustworthy enough to pull this out? Because if I go back to this hierarchy of needs, here's something I know. Okay, I cannot make sure that everyone in this world has air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, and and able to have kids. I can't do that. In fact, Jesus said the the poor will you have with you always. Right? He said it, right? Okay. It doesn't mean we don't try to help people. That's that's not an excuse for that. Okay.

But what I can't do I can't I can't give personal security and employment and resources and health and property to every person I know. Yeah. I can't I don't have enough money for that. In fact, Carnegie uh uh Mr. Carnegie whatever his first name was Oh, Dale. No. No. No. That was the that was the author. Andrew Carnegie. He was the steel magnet. US Steel. the early uh the late 1800s, early 1900s. He was one of the richest men in the world at his at the time. He he died a palper because and because he and he was born a palper and he sold for his company to uh the Rockefellers for an egregious sum of money and gave it all away. And he said 90% of charity goes to those that don't need it. Right?

He said, "But I'm doing it for the 10%." And I get it. That's the truth. He's he was doing it. He He died of palper. He couldn't solve all of those needs. But what you can do is we can have community and we can have love and belonging. We can build those things in a trustworthy manner, in a genuine manner in everyone we come in contact with. Doesn't mean we all have to be salesmen, right? Because there's nothing nothing less trustworthy than a salesman, right? You're like, I don't want to shake that guy's hand. Yeah, that one doesn't mean does and I pick on salesman a lot. Like, brother Tim, I don't really mean it. So, it doesn't mean we all we all have to be the most personable person, but it does mean we have to be genuine.

Because if we're genuinely and trustworthyly trying to help someone and show love, that need will actually it I I kid you not, it will actually be met. It actually will. I used to like animals, they can tell what you're thinking somehow. All right. I used to play this game. I was scared to death of my horse when I was a kid. I was scared to death of my horse cuz it was big and I was a kid. And I would like I would like and it can tell cuz I I would watch. If you're skittish, they would be skittish. And so I would just talk to myself. I'm like, "You're not scared." And I would change my thoughts and I would watch. I kid you not. I did this more times than I can remember.

I would change my thoughts and I would watch the behavior of the horse change as I change my thoughts because my fair you you put out pherommones when you're scared that wasp can smell. So if you start doing this when there's wasp it can smell them. I'll reach up and just grab a wasp and they don't they don't bite me like they would you if you're scared of them. Okay. I'm just saying like they can they can sense that. But if you can if you can change your thoughts on this. I am so serious. It's such a weird experiment. But if you can change your thoughts. Okay. Hey buddy, those two those things those get you. But I'm just saying I have done that more times than I can count with my own animals of I'm scared of this.

As a kid, I did this and I changed and I watched how it their their response to me changed because I changed and I genuinely changed as I taught myself through it. This horse isn't trying to hurt you. It you know it's it didn't hurt you last time. You're okay. And just taught myself through it. The horse changed. That's so interesting and such a cool lesson that I think if we will do that with ourselves and we're genuine as we go to people in their need or they come to us in their need. We can't I I promise you I wished I could solve every problem. I wished I could but I can't. But I can I can love. I can give someone a place to belong. I can I can have warmth in my soul. I can pray for them. I can genuinely try to help them. I can do that.

I really can. And you can too. We can build such a deep genuine well of community that that people will naturally just stick to us and they won't even know why. Not because we manipulated, not because we we bought them out, not because we gave them everything, but because we genuinely loved their soul. We genuinely wanted the best for them as a church body. I do believe that is part of us building a greater community. It starts here. And I reason I started with trustworthiness is because the one of the very first roadblocks we come against is we don't I don't know if I can trust them or not. Very first I I just don't trust him yet. Pastor calls it what? The gift of suspicion. We all got that. I don't know if I can trust him.

A PhD in suspicion. Glad you said it and I didn't. I'm just kidding. I'm just picking. Am I trustworthy? Can I Can I genuinely say that you know what? I have your best interest at heart. It's easy to say, it's hard to do. I talked Sunday just for a moment and and and really what happened was uh my grandfather, he and he is a very principled man and his actions, if you were around him long enough, you would understand. But I'm you're not. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna pull from that. He he had his own business for years and years and and pastored for years and years and did and so he'll he'll tell me about an instance.

He told me about an instance one time where um somebody whatever it was there was some breakdown in relationship with this older person and between them and their kids and he just helped them out whatever as his role as a pastor was to do and they were like you know we're going to put you in our will and they did and he was like you know you probably don't need to do that as he's telling me this I'm like pops what are you doing stop talking yourself out of this you know like you probably probably just maybe maybe reconcile with your kids and and do that and whatever the situation was, you know, it doesn't matter. But I look at that and then I ask myself, can I do the same thing?

And I look at that, I'm going to ask you, could you do the same thing? Because it it wasn't to his benefit. And for all we know, the kids probably deserve to be cut out. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm not We can talk ourselves into any scenario we want to. We really can't. Well, I've done this for them. I deserve this. It's like maybe just talk yourself out of that. Maybe your witness is more important than what's in the will because if and I'm I'm going to I'm going to use this as an example, but if he were to if he was to stay there in in that situation, then that family would be forever. the pre the church or the preacher stole my money. It may have been 10 bucks. Okay, I I don't I don't know.

I'm not cast I'm not I don't know the details. But what I do know is that the office was more important than him. Now I would ask you is the office of being a Christian more important than you are? Are you trustworthy enough to have the principles of God in you when it is not even the best for you per se? That's a big deal. That's a level that's the level of granularity I'm trying to get into tonight because I do believe that matters. That will show up when we when we least expect it. But it is the most important part of our being. Can we allow our identity in Christ to outshine Samuel or Eli? Can we do that? Would you stand with me? Jesus, our heavenly father, God, we thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy.

God, we we thank you, Lord, for trusting us, Lord, with your word, with with the gospel. And God, I pray Lord, very simply tonight, Lord, that you would allow us to you would help us to be trustworthy enough to carry your word, to identify as Christian, to identify as part of being Christlike, God, that you would help us, God, help us to have the integrity, the character to be who we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be it, how we're supposed to be it. God, God, give us wisdom. Give us understanding. God, let us be uh wise as serpents and gentle as doves. God, help us, Lord, to be like you in all that we do and build a greater community. God, I thank you and I praise you. Jesus name we pray. Amen.